Knowledge of animals may influence children's beliefs and behaviour toward them, thus building positive attitudes toward animals is one of main goals of environmental education programmes. Although keeping animals contributes to the increase of children's positive attitudes toward wild animals, pet owners show similar negative attitudes toward…

The purpose of this study is to identify how upper secondary school French students (Grade 10-12) interpret chemical transformation with regards to the changes within molecules and atoms, and in terms of intramolecular and/or intermolecular bond breaking. In order to identify and describe the students' assimilated knowledge, four questions were…

The dual purpose of this article is to provide a synthesis of the findings related to the use of computer simulations in physics education and to present implications for teachers and researchers in science education. We try to establish a conceptual framework for the utilization of computer simulations as a tool for learning and instruction in…

By the time youngsters reach high school in the United States, the achievement gap is immense. Some remarkable inner-city schools, however, are showing that the achievement gap can be closed, even at the middle and high school level, if poor minority kids are given the right kind of instruction. In this article, the author features six schools…

In this paper we explore the possibilities for redesigning pedagogy in the middle years of schooling. We think that the middle schooling movement in Australia is unfinished because the pedagogical reforms promised have been patchy, not well researched and difficult to sustain. As well, middle schooling is a little exhausted because it has failed…

In order to gauge youth perceptions of school violence, this study links two perceptual bias literatures: third-person perception and optimistic bias. The intersection of the two literatures may be especially beneficial in understanding how adolescents process and interpret public health messages and subsequently engage in risk behaviors or…

This study reports on the validation of a scale to assess adolescent girls' frequency of sexual communication with their parents. The Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS) was administered to 522 African American female adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 18. The PACS demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (across multiple…

A number of terms have been used to describe knowledge needed for teaching, one of which is subject knowledge. How knowledge for teaching is conceptualized in teacher education prioritizes some knowledge bases over other knowledge bases. Further, knowledge prioritized by student teachers is influenced by socialization prior to and during an…

This study was designed to find whether simple or complex messages are more effective in promoting safe sex behaviors. Two-hundred-forty college freshmen (131 males and 109 females) were assigned to three groups. The "simple messages" group received crucial messages. The "complex messages" group received crucial messages…

In the context of a research project on the role of prior knowledge state (PKS) in the learning process in a modular education system, a study of the literature was done in order to construct a conceptual map of "prior knowledge." In addition, a study was carried out in order to operationalize the concept of prior knowledge, to construct…

This paper compares the beliefs and practices of six elementary education majors prior to and during their senior year clinical and student teaching experiences. Three of these preservice teachers had the minimum requirement of two mathematics content courses. The other three were mathematics specialists and had at least six additional courses in…

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is introduced. Some historical background and an overview of preference and types are given. Applications of the MBTI are discussed, focusing on educational issues concerning the study of learning styles. Learning styles are defined according to D. H. Kalsbeek, G. Lawrence, and others. Each dichotomous…

This study was designed to determine whether there are disparities in sex knowledge between hearing college freshmen at the University of Maryland (N=75) and Loyola College in Baltimore (N=128) and deaf college freshmen at Gallaudet University (N=38). The Sex Knowledge Inventory was administered along with the Knowledge portion of the Sex…

This monograph consists of a paper outlining current trends in education and discussing issues related to the dissemination of knowledge, and a selected ERIC bibliography on this subject. Trends highlighted in the paper include: (1) the expansion of information; (2) the increasing pace of specialization; (3) the tendency of groups interested in…

The objective of the current research program was to develop a prototype knowledge acquisition tool that could enable the investigation of knowledge acquisition issues for instructional systems. Our approach to accomplishing this objective entailed the identification of the types of knowledge to be acquired, the evaluation of methods of acquiring…